Santa Clara County School-wide Positive Behavior Support Chris Borgmeier, PhD Portland State University

School-wide Positive Behavior Support is: A systems approach for establishing the social culture and individualized behavioral supports needed for schools to be effective learning environments for all students. Evidence-based features of SW-PBS Prevention Define and teach positive social expectations Acknowledge positive behavior Arrange consistent consequences for problem behavior On-going collection and use of data for decision-making Continuum of intensive, individual interventions. Administrative leadership – Team-based implementation (Systems that support effective practices)

Common Vision/Values Common Language Common Experience MEMBERSHIP

Primary Prevention: School/Classroom- Wide Systems for All Students, Staff, & Settings Secondary Prevention: Specialized Group Systems for Students with At-Risk Behavior Tertiary Prevention: FBA  BSP for Students with High-Risk Behavior ~80% of Students ~15% ~5% CONTINUUM OF SCHOOL-WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT

BIG IDEA Successful individual student behavior support is linked to host environments or school climates that are effective, efficient, relevant, durable, & scalable (Zins & Ponti, 1990)

Getting Started at your School

Behavioral Capacity Priority & Status Data-based Decision Making Communications Administrator Team Administrator Specialized Support Student Community Non-Teaching Teaching Family Representation Start with Team that “Works.” Team-led Process

Agreements Team Data-based Action Plan ImplementationEvaluation GENERAL IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS

School-wide Rules: Creating a Culture Chris Borgmeier, PhD Portland State University (503)

Guidelines for Developing School-wide Rules 3-5 Positively Stated Rules Rules should be:  Broad enough to cover all potential behavior  Stated positively  Brief and easy to remember  Catchy – personalized to your school Common Examples  Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful

Publicly Post School Rules Make easily visible rules posters & post them in every room/area of the school  Posters should be visible from nearly any location in the school Why Post the Rules? 1) Prompts staff & students to acknowledge positive, not only negative behavior 2) Increases accountability for staff and students to use language & follow rules 3) Signs can reduce personal focus of confrontation – now point to the rules poster and site school rule being broken, no longer my rule you’re breaking

Few positive SW expectations defined, taught, & encouraged

School Rules Poster

Teaching Matrix SETTING All SettingsHallwaysPlaygroundsCafeteria Library/ Computer Lab AssemblyBus Respect Ourselves Be on task. Give your best effort. Be prepared. Walk.Have a plan. Eat all your food. Select healthy foods. Study, read, compute. Sit in one spot. Watch for your stop. Respect Others Be kind. Hands/feet to self. Help/share with others. Use normal voice volume. Walk to right. Play safe. Include others. Share equipment. Practice good table manners Whisper. Return books. Listen/watch. Use appropriate applause. Use a quiet voice. Stay in your seat. Respect Property Recycle. Clean up after self. Pick up litter. Maintain physical space. Use equipment properly. Put litter in garbage can. Replace trays & utensils. Clean up eating area. Push in chairs. Treat books carefully. Pick up. Treat chairs appropriately. Wipe your feet. Sit appropriately. Expectations 1. SOCIAL SKILL 2. NATURAL CONTEXT 3. BEHAVIOR EXAMPLES

Expectations & behavioral skills are taught & recognized in natural context

How will you teach expectations? Teach expectations in the identified setting (i.e. cafeteria, hallway, etc.) Have staff who are present in the settings participate/lead lessons (i.e. recess staff lead lesson) Schedule specific times for trainings to occur across settings Have principal & leadership team provide support across settings for teaching

What great teachers do… Have students practice the behavior in the setting  Simply talking about the rules or describing them is not nearly as powerful as having the student practice and “show you” they can do it Teacher should demonstrate the wrong way  Have students explain why this is the wrong way Students should practice the right way

Acknowledgement Systems: Catch ‘em being Good

Acknowledge & Recognize

Acknowledgment Systems Purpose:  To reinforce school rules, behavioral expectations & positive behavior  Promote a more positive school environment School-wide 5:1 positive/negative interaction ratio Regular school-wide celebration of positive behavior  Increase positive interactions b/w staff & students  Prompt busy adults to remember to reinforce positive behavior

FAILURE SUCCESS 5 : 1 Positive Behavior Support is…. What parents, teachers, peers and others do to increase student success---the whole village!

5:1 ratio, it’s not just for kids Business teams  High Performance teams = 5.6 to 1  Medium Performance teams = 1.9:1  Low Performance teams = 1 to 2.7 Losada, 1999; Losada & Heaphy 2004 Married couples that last  5.1 to for speech acts and 4.7 to 1 for observed emotions Gottman, 1994

Acknowledgment Systems Big pay-off for limited expense  Immediate reinforcement with tokens that are accessible to all students  Link with school wide celebration of positive behavior Lottery system helps to keep incentives cheap  Lot of kids have chance to win… but pay out is cheap Small tangible rewards Public recognition is often powerful  Make the program catchy – link with school rules &/or school mascot Cougar paws, Pawsitives, Starbucks, Bravo tickets, etc.

Train staff how to hand out Acknowledgments “Sergio, thank you for picking up Jackie’s book for her you are being very Respectful. I want to recognize your good behavior with a Caught Being Good ticket, I really appreciate it when you follow the school rules.” 1) Always pair the ticket with a verbal explanation that is genuine, clear & specifically identifies the behavior 2) Link with school rule 3) It is best to provide the ticket immediately after the student engages in the behavior

Responding to Problem Behavior Should:  Respect the dignity of the student  Limit loss of instructional time  Focus on providing instruction in what to do

Average Referrals per Day per Month Middle School of 600 students

Referrals by Location

Referrals by Time

Referrals by Student

Universal Interventions: School-/Classroom- Wide Systems for All Students, Staff, & Settings Targeted Group Interventions: Specialized Group Systems for Students with At-Risk Behaviour Intensive Individual Interventions: Specialized Individualized Systems for Students with High-Risk Behaviour CONTINUUM OF SCHOOL-WIDE INSTRUCTIONAL & POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT ~80% of Students ~15% ~5%

For more info:

Targeted (Tier 2) Interventions

What is a Tier 2/ Targeted Intervention  An intervention that: Serves multiple students at one time Students can get started with almost immediately upon referral Requires almost no legwork from referring staff to begin implementation of the intervention with a student All school staff know about, understand their roll with, and know the referral process for Matches school needs by effectively supporting a significant proportion of students at-risk for challenging behavior in the school  If program is not self-sufficient… and requires significant organization by referring staff… it’s not a targeted intervention

Check In/Check Out AKA Check-n-Connect, HUGs, Behavior Education Program…

Check In/Check Out Weekly CICO Meeting 9 Week Graph Sent Program Update EXIT CICO Plan Morning Check-In Afternoo n Check- In Home Check-In Daily Teacher Evaluation

Example Middle School Point Card

Example Point Card - Elementary

SWIS-CICO Support Plan ChangeDescription 10/06/2009Check out with Joe Binder

Other Targeted Interventions

Look first at what you are already doing:  Homework Club  Social Skills groups  Lunch Buddies  Peer Tutors  Etc. How are you tracking student progress with these interventions? Are these interventions:  providing the desired outcomes?  cost effective?

Tier 3 Support Students with Significant Behavioral Challenges

Why Do People Behave? Modeling? Accident? Instinct? Condition?? Why Do People Continue Behaving? IT WORKS!

Why is the function of behavior important? Any intervention can potentially make problem behavior:  Better  Have no effect  Make it worse Using function to guide selection of interventions should help to more efficiently and effectively ID effective interventions & avoid interventions that can make things worse

ABC’s of Understanding Chronic Behavior Patterns What happens before (A or antecedent) the behavior occurs ?  Trigger What is the behavior (B)? What happens after (C or consequence) the behavior occurs?  Response or Outcome of the Behavior A  B  C

Antecedents What triggers the behavior? What happens immediately preceding the problem/target behavior? What triggers the behavior, be specific...  What activity?  What peers?  What tasks?  Describe in detail If you wanted to set up the student to engage in the problem behavior, what would you have do?

Consequence What is the response to the behavior? What happens immediately following the behavior?  How do peers respond?  How do the adults respond?  What are the consequences for the student?  How many times out of 10 do each of these responses occur following the problem behavior? What is the student gaining as a result of engaging in the behavior?  How is it paying off for the student?

Learning A  B  C Student Learns through repeated experience, that under these specific A ntecedent conditions, if I engage in this B ehavior, I can expect this C onsequence

Learning & A  B  C ABC Student is asked to do a math problem in front of the class Student tries to do the problem at the board, but struggles Peers laugh at student and one says aloud, “that one is so easy” NEXT DAY Student is asked to do a math problem in front of the class What happens today???

Think about the Function of Behavior When understanding behavior, you are the investigator  You need to understand from the student perspective…  You need to be convinced…  You need to be confident in the results of the interview…

Most Common Functions of Behavior To Obtain:  peer attention  adult attention  desired activity  desired item  desired peer To Avoid/ Escape:  difficult task  non-preferred activity  peer  staff

FBA/BSP Team members School FBA Team Principal and Behavior Specialist (usually School Psychologist or SpEd teacher) GenEd teacher/ staff Other school staff that work with the student Aides, Paraeducators, Yard Duty staff, etc. SpEd teacher/ staff Parent Other involved community members/ services Mental health services, Medical services, Big brother/sister, etc